Pixelmator Photo on iPad going to Files?

Discuss Photomator and photo editing.
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2021-01-23 17:43:20

Using Pixelmator Photo 1.5.1 on an iPad Pro iPadOS 14.3

Today, Pixelmator Photo doesn't open the Photos library directly. It opens into Files browser, where I can see photos being stored in the iCloud Drive/Pixelmator Photo/xxxx.photo rather than browsing the Photos library. I can still share sheet from Photos into Pixelmator Photo, but edits seem to get lost? Unless I figure out how to create a xxx.photo file first. Anyone else seeing this issue?
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2021-01-27 15:26:47

Hey there. Typically, you should be able to switch between the Files and the Photos browsers by tapping the cog icon at the top of the screen. Is there any chance this icon is missing in your browser?
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2021-01-28 15:18:41

Hi. The cog icon is there. I figured it out - one specific photograph seems to flip Pixelmator Photo into Files mode when it's Shared from the Photos app. I'm not really sure if there's something weird about that photo. Others don't seem to do it. But I'll keep checking.
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2021-01-29 11:26:00

Now that you've mentioned the Share extension, there's one case known to us where what you're describing can happen. The limitation is with the Share extension itself. Essentially, when you pick a photo to edit, the Share extension has to get its unique ID in order to assign the edits to the right photo. Sometimes, the extension is unable to retrieve the ID and we have to find other ways to extract it. Unfortunately, this reverse engineering can sometimes fail. If that happens and we're unable to get the image ID, a .photo file or a copy of the image in Files is created instead.